1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of the inspection and monitoring of semiconductor wafers or substrates during or at the end of manufacture or during the production of integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
The tendency of semiconductor wafers to increase in diameter means that they have to be handled with extreme care and are ever more fragile. Moreover, the increasingly fine etching of designs on a semiconductor wafer makes each component of the wafer more and more prone to manufacturing defects.
The increase in the diameter of the substrates, the reduction in size of the designs and the efforts to achieve an increased yield during the manufacture of integrated circuits cause the manufacturers and substrate users to inspect the entire surface of the substrate comprising the upper surface, the lower surface and the cross-section.
The invention sets out to improve the situation.